Transcript
Speaker 1: 0:00
For a little over a month now, since Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the Haredim have to serve in the army, there have been massive protests by the Haredim in Yerushalayim, in Bnei Brak and other places as well. Many people have asked me why the Haredim should be entitled not to serve in the army. After all, shouldn't everyone serve their country? So tonight I'm going to explain why the Haredim refuse to serve in Israel's army and why, specifically, the army of the state of Israel has no right to draft anybody, to force anybody to serve in it.
Speaker 1: 0:40
Israel's army is not a normal army like the armies of all other countries. Israel's army is not a normal army like the armies of all other countries. Normal armies are designed for military purposes, to protect the country and to fight wars. But Israel's army was specifically designed to do much more than that. Besides being a military, israel's army was designed as an educational institution, as an indoctrination camp for Israel's state religion, namely Zionism, in the words of Ben-Gurion, who believed that the army succeeded in being not only an educational institution, but the most important educational instrument, apart from the schools. Apart from the schools, quote it is incumbent upon the army to be the cultural tool for the fusion of diaspora Jews refined and purified from a harmful foreign garbage in the melting pot of Jewish brotherhood and through military discipline, the barriers between communities will be torn down and true unity of a new nation, reviving its youth, will be forged, which will draw from an ancient past saturated with struggle. End quote. The IDF is not designed merely to be a military. It's designed to 'clean, refine and purify the Jews of their "foreign garbage", to educate them and to provide them with cultural elevation'. It sounds more like a rehab than an army, and indeed it is. But what Israel's army wants to rehabilitate us from we would gladly give our lives to retain. Let's examine some of the purification and cultural elevation that the IDF imparts to its soldiers.
Speaker 1: 2:40
The IDF officer's training course, for example, was found to include lectures on the following topics 1. What is Judaism? 2. The uniqueness of the Jewish people. 3. The people and the land in a Jewish perspective. 4. War and the army in a Jewish perspective. 5. Is Judaism a religion, a way of life or a constitution? 6. The identity of the Jewish people. These are lectures from the IDF officers' training course. Is Judaism a religion, a way of life or a constitution? And suffice it to say that the IDF version of Judaism and Jewishness is not the same as that of the Torah, and suffice it to say that when they discuss, for example, war and the army from a Jewish perspective, they're not using Jewish religious texts as their guide.
Speaker 1: 3:38
But before we get to the content of the Israeli army's idea of what Jewishness is and whether Judaism is a religion, a way of life or a constitution, before we get to what the Israeli army teaches the Jewish people about their own identity, let's try to understand what an army is doing, teaching this stuff. To begin with, why are these topics being taught by a national army altogether? What business does an army have to do about teaching its recruits about their religion? Imagine if the American army would teach about is Christianity as a religion, a constitution, a way of life? What is the identity of the Christian people? And imagine if, in the army, you were taught that what your priests taught you is true, what your pope taught you is true, what your religious clergymen taught you is true about Christianity is completely false. We in the army, we in the government that your democracy and your government are going to tell you what Christianity is all about. Who would tolerate that in an army. Yet this is precisely not only what goes on in Israel's army, but this is one of the purposes, one of the main purposes that Israel's army has a draft. This is the melting pot.
Speaker 1: 5:06
The reason for this is because, when Israel was first created, ben-gurion described the problem that they have. He said that we have a country and we have citizens, but we do not have a nation. And the reason he said this was because Israel is not like other countries in the world. All other countries in the world are the countries of its citizens. America is the country of the Americans, Italy the country of the Italian citizens, and France, the Court and other courts have ruled like this in the past, even before the nation state law was passed, that Israel is the country of the Jewish nationality.
Speaker 1: 5:52
Israel is the country of the Jews, not the country of the Israelis. According to Israel's census, the way they categorize their citizens, they're different categories. There's religion, there's nationality and there's citizenship. You could be an Israeli citizen, but there's no such thing as an Israeli nationality. Your nationality is Jewish. You could be a Druze. There's an Arab nationality. There's about 130 Israeli nationalities, but Israeli is not one of them. The reason is Israel's courts have said because one of the cornerstones of Zionism there's a quote one of the cornerstones of Zionism is that the Jews are a nationality and not just a religion and Israel is the country.
Speaker 1: 6:37
By Israeli law, nation state law Israel is the country of the Jewish nationality, the Jewish nation, not the Israeli citizens. This means that, whereas Israeli citizens have certain civil rights as citizens collectively, the rights to self-determination in Israel meaning the right to rule over yourself in Israel is exclusive to the Jewish people. That means I, who am part of this alleged Jewish nationality, this Jewish nation, have a right to self-determination in Israel, even though I'm not a citizen, even though I don't live there, never have lived there and don't plan on living there, even though my family comes from Poland, not Israel. An Israeli citizen, on the other hand, who's not jewish maybe he's muslim, maybe he's christian, buddhist, hindu, whatever if he is not jewish, although he has individual civil rights, collectively his non-jewish people have no right at all to self-determination in israel, meaning that the jews by law have to rule over israel, they have to remain a majority or, if there's a what Israel refers to constantly as a demographic threat of non-Jews becoming a majority in Israel, israel would conceivably be legally allowed to take steps to make sure that the non-Jews, one way or the other, do not control Israel. Only the Jews have a right to self-determination in Israel.
Speaker 1: 8:08
Israel is officially the country of the Jews. Let me repeat this. Just because you are an Israeli citizen does not mean Israel is your country. If you're Jewish and you're not a citizen of Israel, Israel is officially your country. See, if I go to Italy let's say move to Italy and I marry an Italian girl, have Italian children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, and I speak Italian and buy battalion culture, fight in the Italian army, fly the Italian flag and sing opera, music or whatever passes for Italian culture these days sing opera, music or whatever passes for Italian culture these days, after X amount of years, maybe a thousand years. For sure, my children, my family, are regular Italians. We're Italian citizens. We're not distinguishable from any other Italians, but in Israel you could be the biggest Zionist in the world. You could fight in the Israeli army. You could speak Hebrew perfectly without an accent. You could become a Supreme Court justice in Israel or a member of its parliament. Your children could be Israelis, the biggest Zionists, fight in the Israeli army and be perfect, loyal, patriotic Israelis.
Speaker 1: 9:19
After a thousand years, Israel is still not your country. You have no self-determination rights in Israel because you're not Jewish. And you will never have self-determination rights in Israel, no matter what you do, how loyal you are to the country, how much you fight in their wars, what status you rise to as an individual, doesn't matter. Israel's not your country because Israel is the country of the Jews, this Jewish nationality. When this nation state law came out the Druze, for example, the nationality of the Druze and the religion of the Jews they were very upset. They are some of the fiercest fighters in Israel's army, perfectly loyal Zionists, but they were left out. Israel is not their country, and will never be their country, because they are not Jewish.
Speaker 1: 10:10
Now, one of the ways that this law, this concept of Israel as the Jewish state, manifests is with regard to Israel's draft. Don't believe the Zionists when they tell you that they want to draft the Haredim because of some concept of sharing the burden, because people are dying for their country and the Haredim are letting other people die. That's not true at all. You know that Israel's draft is only for Jews. If you're not Jewish in Israel, you're a Christian, you're a Muslim. You're not going to get drafted even if you're an Israeli citizen. With the exception of the Druze, that small group that I mentioned before, and the Circassians among the Christians, you are not obligated to serve in the Israeli army and you will not get drafted if you're a regular Christian or regular Muslim, if you're a regular Christian or regular Muslim.
Speaker 1: 11:03
Now, about 10 years ago, we in America made a protest. The Jews in America made a protest about 40,000 people in Manhattan and Foley Square, protesting Israel's attempt then to draft the Haredim. About 40,000 Haredim protested here. And that evening I was asked by a local city councilman, a Jewish guy, orthodox Zionist, to be on his radio show to discuss our side of the story. On the other side of the show, by pre-recorded hookup because of the time difference, it was seven o'clock at night here in Israel they had Dov Lipman, who was then a Knesset member, also Orthodox Jew, but a Zionist.
Speaker 1: 11:50
He was a member of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party, whose brainchild it was to wage a campaign to draft the Haredim, and the host asked this member of Knesset why don't you draft the non-Jews? Why don't you draft the Arabs? Now you may think that it's due to security reasons, that they don't want the Arabs in the army. But that's not true, because if an Arab, if a Muslim volunteers to come to the Israeli army, they accept him. They accept Muslim volunteers in the army, muslim Arab volunteers. Now, if you're worried about security reasons, then you should be worried about the volunteers, the people that volunteered to come into the army. Them you have to worry about. The guys that go in kicking and screaming are less of a danger. So Israel, it's not for security reasons. So this host asked him why don't you do that? If equal burden is your bumper sticker here, why don't you draft these guys? And you know what he said. He said well, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: 12:47
The IDF is the army of the Jews, so Jews are obligated to fight in it. I was shocked that he actually admitted that openly to an American audience. The Israeli army is the army of the Jews. It's not the army of the country of Israel, it's the army of the Jewish nationality. So, in case you want to know, I am here in America, I'm an American citizen, my family is from Poland, we've been there centuries. I have a country, I have a state Israel is my nation state and I have a state Israel is my nation state and I have an army, and the IDF is my army and Israel is my country. At the same time, the other side of that coin is that Israel is not the country of the Israelis. Israel is the country of the Jews. The IDF is not the army of the Israelis, it is the army of the Jews.
Speaker 1: 13:41
So first, before we start anything else, Israel's army is not an equal obligation burden. If you are Jewish, you are obligated. If you are not Jewish, you're not obligated. If you are a woman and you're Jewish, then you get drafted. Unless you're a religious Jewish woman, then you get an exemption. Nobody's trying right now to draft religious women into the army. If you're not Jewish, even if you're a Druze or one of those groups that are drafted, you are not obligated. So first, it depends on your religion. If you're Jewish, you have to go. You get drafted. If you're not Jewish, you don't. If you're Jewish and you're a woman, then it depends if you're religious or not. If you're religious, you don't. If you're Jewish and you're a woman, then it depends if you're religious or not. If you're religious, you don't get drafted If you are religious. If you're not religious, then you do get drafted.
Speaker 1: 14:30
This is not an equal burden army, and the reason for this is Israel decided that their country is the country of the Jews and their army is the army of the Jews. The problem that Ben-Gurion had when Israel was created in 1948 is that there was no Jewish nationality in existence, and he knew that. Ben-gurion said that we have a country and we have citizens, but we do not have a nation. Then, 1948, when Jews came to Israel, there were Ashkenazim and Svardim, there were Jews from Russia and Germany, and then there were Yemenite Jews. They had nothing culturally in common, nothing in any way, no commonality whatsoever. They had religious Jews and anti-religious Jews, gurian himself and rabbis who are so far apart in every conceivable way. Yet Israel is supposed to be a nation, not just a country like the United States of America where there's so many different people. That's not what Israel wanted. Israel wanted to create, the Zionists wanted to create a country of the Jewish nationality. So first they had to invent a way to synthesize in the laboratory a Jewish nationality. So first they had to invent a way to synthesize in the laboratory a Jewish nationality. Try to get all these people together in this so-called Jewish state, where they didn't even have the same definition of Jew, the Jewish definition of Jew meaning the Jewish religion.
Speaker 1: 15:59
The way Jews have identified for thousands of years is that God gave the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. Whoever accepted the Torah. That makes him a Jew is that God gave the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. Whoever accepted the Torah, that makes him a Jew. Whoever didn't accept the Torah is not a Jew. You can convert. Accept the Torah later, accept the Torah today and that makes you a Jew. A Jew is somebody who enters into a covenant with God by accepting the Torah. But the non-religious Jews that didn't even believe in the Torah, ben-gurion said he didn't even believe in the God of the Torah. But the non-religious Jews that didn't even believe in the Torah, ben-gurion said he didn't even believe in the God of the Bible. He was as anti-religious as you can get. He referred to Orthodox Judaism, the idea that Judaism doesn't change, as quoted Nazi ideology.
Speaker 1: 16:36
How did the Zionists expect to create one nation, one people, one nation of the Jews, one Jewish people who identified as one nation, with one definition of Jew? Because, honestly, when I say the word Jew, and Ben-Gurion says the word Jew, they're just Hamonins. I have nothing in common with Ben-Gurion, nothing in terms of Jewishness. But that's not what the Zionists wanted. So therefore they created. Well, first, the school system. Ben-Gurion hired a guy, the first minister of education in Israel, a guy by the name of Ben-Zion Diener to create an entirely new Jewish history, to teach the children that Jews throughout history always wanted a national self-determination movement. They wanted to make what ended up being the State of Israel. That's what Jews were always looking forward to. The whole thing is baloney. The entire history that's taught, the Jewish history that's taught in Israeli Zionist schools is baloney. But that educational institutions were one way of convincing people that they're part of this artificially created Jewish nation. The problem is that, first of all, haredim don't go to the public school system. They have their own private school system. And secondly, not everybody accepts everything they learned in school, not everybody's good students, not everybody pays attention in class, accepts everything they learned in school. Not everybody's good students, not everybody pays attention in class. And so Ben-Gurion created a different educational institution and he got the idea from the Russian Cantonists.
Speaker 1: 18:13
Let the army be an institution of cultural elevation, in his words. Let the army be an indoctrination camp for the religion of Zionism. Let the army tell people the definition of Judaism, the definition of Jewish people. The definition of the Jewish nation is the Zionist one and not the religious one. Let the army tell the students that they're students. That's exactly what they are.
Speaker 1: 18:40
The recruits, the people who you force to come into the army. Force them into the army, the army where it's not like a school, it's not like you could go around the hall shooting spitballs and get a little detention. In the army, every move you make, everything you do, is regulated. The discipline is tight in an army. Tight in an army is armies have been compared to jails or, even more so, mental institutions, where everything a person does is he does only under orders and whatever latitude he has to act on his own is only if the army permits it.
Speaker 1: 19:21
The army is a great place to brainwash somebody, to teach them not only to shoot but what you're shooting for, to teach them not only to risk your life but what you're risking your life for, to teach them not only to kill but what you're killing for, not only to die if necessary, but what you're dying for. And that's the point. Whereas other armies are there to serve their countries, the needs of the countries, the security needs of the countries, Israel's army is there to serve the Zionist gods, to serve the needs of the Zionist ideology. To teach the people in the army that the Jews are a nationality, not just a religion. That's Zionism. To teach them the Jewish identity, jewish idea of war. They also teach them.
Speaker 1: 20:17
Another one of the items on the list in the officer's training handbook is what is Kiddush Hashem, god's name? When a Jew martyrs himself for the sake of God, that's considered sanctifying God's name. What is a Kiddush Hashem? And, of course, the answer is if you die for Israel, for your country, for your people, God is left out of the entire thing. Because, of course, according to Zionism, Jewishness has nothing to do with God. Yes, the Jews had a religion. In the same way that the Greeks worshipped Zeus, the Jews worshipped their God. But being a Greek is a nationality and so is being a Jew.
Speaker 1: 20:57
Now, these ideas of what is Judaism, the religion of Judaism? They teach that it's a constitution of a national people. Whatever their answers are, this is a parochial school, the IDF is a parochial school, and they don't merely teach about Judaism, which is bad enough, but the values that they teach. What unifies a country, what unites Americans? Well, there's all sorts of values that America has, but in Israel, the army itself becomes a value, itself becomes a value. I mean, after all, try as they might, what in the world could the Zionists in the army and in the schools teach that all the Jews have in common? I have nothing in common with Ben-Gurion, at least nothing that we both believe we have in common. And what happens is that fighting anti-Semites which according to Zionism, as we all know, means fighting Israel's enemies, the army itself becomes the common denominator of the Jewish nationality.
Speaker 1: 22:03
I once saw an article in Hebrew about this and then I saw it translated into English. But the English article that I saw didn't seem the same as the Hebrew Until I did some research and I found in a book that the English translation of the article was censored. They left out something, and that happens a lot, by the way. A lot, by the way, when Israel writes things or Zionists write things in Hebrew, they usually reveal more than they would for an English-speaking audience. So the article was by Amnon Raz Krakatskin, called Exile Within Sovereignty a Critique of the Negation of Exile in Israeli Culture in a journal called Teoria Uvikoret, fall 1993, page 32. And the book that finally revealed to me the missing part of the English article is called An Army Like No Other by Chaim Breshit Zabner. I think that's how you pronounce it. Here's the translation Quote. Here's the translation: End quote.
Speaker 1: 23:38
What he means by the failure of an autonomic definition of Judaism means that the Zionists have no real, intellectually consistent definition of what a Jew is. I've spoken about this in previous podcasts. I mean, take the absurdity of the Zionist definition of a Jew. Israel claims to be the Jewish state, and the Jewish state means the nation state of all the Jewish people. But what is a Jewish person?
Speaker 1: 24:04
Well, according to Israeli law, obviously you don't have to be religious to be a jew. Uh, an atheist can be a jew, obviously, but the law, because being a jew is a nationality, you could also follow the jewish religion, but not necessarily. Okay. So what happens if you are born jewish, a member of the jewish nationality, but you believe in a religion other than Judaism? You believe Jesus is the Messiah, you believe Muhammad is the prophet, but you were born Jewish, you're not an anti-Semite and you want to come to Israel based on the law of return, that you're Jewish, but you have these beliefs that coincide with Christianity. You practice Christianity, perhaps, or you practice Islam, but you're a Jewish nationality and you want to come to Israel. Israeli Supreme Court ruled that if you believe in a religion other than Judaism, you're not Jewish.
Speaker 1: 25:02
There was a guy, Oswald Refusion, a brother of Daniel. That was what his name became because he became a Carmelite monk. He was born Jewish. He helped many Jews escape in World War II because he ended up converting. Because of his status, he was able to help Jews, so he was not an anti-Semite. Eventually, after Israel was founded, he wanted to come to Israel and live there as a Jewish national, practicing Christianity and based on the law of return. Israel's Supreme Court said no, he's not Jewish because he practices another religion. But wait, if you are an atheist, if you believe in no God, then you are Jewish. But if you believe God's true, there is a God, but he's a Trinity, then you're not Jewish. If you believe in no prophets, that God never spoke to prophets like Ben-Gurion did, then you're Jewish. But if you believe that Muhammad is a prophet, then you're not Jewish.
Speaker 1: 25:58
So now, how do you become a Jewish national which has nothing to do with religion? You convert to Judaism with a religious conversion. This means, like this, that let's say you're not Jewish, you're born non-Jew. And you're in Belgium, let's say, and you go to a rabbi, a rabbi that has nothing to do with Israel, perhaps an anti-Zionist rabbi doesn't even recognize Israel, certainly not as the Jewish state. He may not even recognize the existence of Israel. He converts you to Judaism. In fact, one of the things that he will require if you want to accept Judaism is you're obligated to be an anti-Zionist and not believe that Israel is a Jewish state, not believe Israel even is allowed to exist according to the Torah law. And now that you're converted to Judaism, now you could become a Jewish national in Israel, even though Jewish nationality has nothing to do with religion. But it does have to do with religion, because if you believe in Jesus or Muhammad, then you're not Jewish.
Speaker 1: 27:08
So imagine this brother Daniel. He comes and he says I want to be Jewish based on the law of return. I say no, you can't because you believe in Christianity. So, all right, you know what? I don't believe in Christianity anymore. I don't believe in any religion, I'm just an atheist. Ah, you're an atheist Now you're Jewish, now you're entitled to the law of return.
Speaker 1: 27:29
What's a Jew? You can't become a Jew through a naturalization process, the way you can become an American or an Italian or a Frenchman, you can't have this Jewish nationality. You don't even have to be born into it. It's not true. If you go through a religious conversion, even an anti-Zionist religious conversion, now you are of the Jewish nationality. Now I wonder if you have the Jewish nationality and after a guy grows up he decides I want to convert to Christianity, I want to be Christian, did you lose your Jewish nationality? Does Israel say now you're not Jewish anymore and now you're not entitled to self-determination in Israel? I suppose they would. If you become an atheist, then you're not.
Speaker 1: 28:08
So imagine this brother Daniel. When he was born he was Jewish and he was entitled to the law of returning as part of the Jewish nationality. Let's say he was an atheist and he's still part of the Jewish nationality. Then he found Christianity. Oh, now you're not part of the Jewish nationality anymore. If he would give up that and become an atheist again, then he's part of the Jewish nationality.
Speaker 1: 28:29
But according to Zionism, being Jewish has nothing to do with religion because you can be an atheist. Now, of course, none of this makes any sense, and that's because Israel tried to create in a laboratory a non-existent Jewish nationality. So what do the Jewish people have in common? What is the common denominator that makes all Jews Jews? It's certainly not something you're born into, because first of all, you can convert, as I mentioned, to Judaism and now you're Jewish national. Secondly, it's a weird thing because, according to Jewish law, if your mother's Jewish, you're Jewish, if your father's Jewish, you're not, and that's a religious doctrine. And somehow this religious doctrine ended up being part of the law of return, even though being Jewish has nothing to do with religion. It's a nationality, according to Israeli law.
Speaker 1: 29:20
So this garbled definition of a Jew, this garbled identity, this nonsensical, self-contradictory, absurd identity that Zionism has created for this non-existent, artificial, delusional Jewish nationality, the only way they can get people to emotionally relate to it, even if intellectually it doesn't make any sense, is to bring them to the army, have them killed together, have them die together. That type of camaraderie, that spilling blood, is going to first of all create the bonds between one Jew and another, the emotional bond, and then they're more likely to accept the indoctrination of what's a Jew. Is Judaism a constitution, a religion, what's Jewish identity about? The wars and military life in Judaism and all the other things that they teach. Then they'll be able to accept that Judaism is not what the rabbis taught. Being Jewish is not what the rabbis teach. Being Jewish is what the Israeli army teaches. I'm continuing. The next paragraph in this book is called An Army Like no Other. And here the distance between civic and military collapses.
Speaker 1: 30:37
Very early in the history of Israel, prime Minister David Ben-Gurion outlined his model of quote a nation under arms. He believed that, while Zionism had created both a state and an army, there was no nation proper. Instead, the task of nation building was to be allotted to the IDF, the radical instrument of transforming the old Jew quote-unquote into the Israeli, using nationalist alchemy to turn the base metal of the ghetto Jew into the refined gold of the Sabra soldier. The nation was constructed through military experience. The nation was constructed through military experience End quote, as Noah Efron, professor of history in Bar-Ilan University, writes. Quote In Tsarist Russia, promoting assimilation was the policy and the army was the means of implementing this policy.
Speaker 1: 31:31
This is true in Israel as well. Ben-gurion described the army as Israel's great melting pot, as the only institution capable of taking young Russians and Germans and Moroccans and stamping them into Israelis. The army makes Israelis of Russian immigrants. The army made an Israeli out of me. He's American and if given the chance, the army will make an Israeli out of young Yankel from Bnei Brak end quote In an article in Haaretz called Forget Judaism.
Speaker 1: 31:53
The Army is Israel's State Religion. In Haaretz, january 1918, it says, and I quote Decades ago, you can still talk of what the early Zionist philosopher, aaron David Gordon called the religion of labor, the early socialist Zionist ethos that consecrated tilling the land as the highest moral ideal to aspire and live by, not in today's materialistic, high-tech Israel. As far as any form of Israeli secularism or religion goes, the IDF is the most powerful one Israel has today. It's the closest thing we have to a state religion. It's certainly an End quote, but it's not really secular Judaism. Judaism, end quote, but it's not really secular Judaism. It's godless, granted, but it's what we would call a civic religion or a cult.
Speaker 1: 32:58
These are religions. They have religious fundamentalism, they are faith-based. They are convinced to die for something, to kill for something, some ideology that doesn't bring much practical value, or any practical value necessarily at all. It gives respect and honor to co-religionists, to its own high priests, the Israeli army. Zionism teaches you to die for things, to live for things, and it's not a competing religion with judaism. It's a version of judaism. It's not that they're teaching you that Judaism is wrong and let's say christianity is right or Judaism is wrong and islam is right. They are teaching that your version of Judaism, the rabbinic version of Judaism, is wrong. Your Jewish identity is not what you think it is. We will teach you what your Jewish identity is and, believe me, jewish it is. It's just not godly. They removed God from Jewishness.
Speaker 1: 34:04
For example, in 2016, the IDF took what it calls its Jewish Consciousness Unit and it took it from the chaplaincy corps to its manpower division. It gave this unit a new title. It's called Identity and Jewish Consciousness Unit, ijcu. They give soldiers incentives, actually financial incentives, to go through this unit where they teach about the Bible, but they don't teach about the Bible and about Judaism from a religious perspective. They teach the Bible from a Zionist perspective. They teach about the wars in the Bible and how you don't need to be religious to be even a biblical hero, how the biblical heroes were not righteous people but rather they were military heroes. Well, we'll let one of their own teachers answer the question.
Speaker 1: 35:06
Some officer presenting a class began her presentation with the question, "Why is the army giving a seminar on the Bible. Her answer is that the Bible is perceived as the one common denominator unifying the different elements of Israeli Jewish society. It's part of their national culture, but without the religious connotations of the Bible. Now, of course, this is literally taking the primary Jewish text, jewish religious text, and teaching that. It's not religious at all. I'm quoting now from an article. It's not religious at all. I'm quoting now from an article by Nehemiah Stern, uzi ben Shalom, udi Lebel and Basya ben Hador. It's called the Chain of Hebrew Soldiers. They're quoting David Schnur from 2018, a former commander of the Bible Seminar published in the IDF's official academic journal Ma'archot. Schnur described the IDF's use of the Bible in terms of a cultural heritage that does not require one to be a kippah wearer or to express a specific religious Jewish outlook.
Speaker 1: 36:22
The other quotes from Ord Wingate, a British army officer and passionate devotee of the Hebrew Bible, who was instrumental in creating and training the pre-state elite guerrilla force known as the Palmach said, quote I've taken a great interest in the Bible, the book of books of generations, the supernal creation of the nation of Israel, the eternal testaments to your life in this land, by which right you exist today. End quote Schnur was emphasizing how Wingate used the Bible in a way that attested to the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. While Wingate was certainly not an Orthodox Jew, schnoor perhaps misses the very religious connotations of the passage itself. Wingate, of course, was a very religious Protestant Christian, zionist end quote Protestant Christian Zionist end quote he was an evangelical. Now, this idea of secularizing religion existed from the get-go in Zionism Officers. Ben-gurion offered the following words, and I quote In the oath you have just sworn. You join the chain of Hebrew soldiers from the time of Joshua ben Nun, the judges, slash warriors and freedom fighters. This chain was cut off from the days of Simon bar Kochba and Ak Akiva ben Yosef and has been forged anew in our days. And the army of Israel in its own land is once again marching to the battle to fight for the freedom of the nation. Ends quote.
Speaker 1: 38:03
An educational tour for the army explains the effect that this Bible teaching is supposed to have. Quote it strengthens the Jewish legacy, the love for the Jewish country and the connection to Israel and its roots. No country has a right to force its citizens into a program of religious indoctrination. No country has a right to force its citizens into a parochial school where they teach them. Your version of your religion is wrong. Your religion is wrong. Your entire religious identity is false. We in the army, in the government, are going to tell you what your religious identity actually is.
Speaker 1: 38:42
Such behavior that goes on in Israel's army, this idea of what does being Jewish mean? What is the Jewish religion? What is Judaism? What is Kiddush Hashem? All of these Jewish concepts drained of their religious meaning and redone in the image of the Zionist civic, godless religion. No one would tolerate that in any other army, and no country has a right to force people to do that. Therefore, if Israel's army was a regular army, if Israel was a regular country, if all they would teach in the Israeli army is the things they teach in normal armies how to defend a country then you can discuss with the Haredim why you tries even to shove down the throats of its recruits.
Speaker 1: 39:33
The Zionist religion disqualifies Israel from having the right to force anybody to serve in that army. No country has a right to force people to go through its religious indoctrination and the fact that your church of Zionism because that's what the Israeli army is, the Israeli army is a church of Zionism, because that's what the Israeli army is. The Israeli army is a church of Zionism. The fact that your church of Zionism is also a military does not make your religious indoctrination any more justified. If Israel wants religious people in its army, let it not teach people by hook, by crook and by various other means of education and influence that their religion is wrong and that their very identity is not what they think it is. The Haredim have a right to religious freedom to practice whatever religion they want, unmolested, and I'm sorry. No country has a right to force people into their religious indoctrination camps, and that's exactly what Israel's army is. If Israel wants more people in their army, let them have a normal army. Let them spend their time Instead of teaching about Judaism, instead of teaching about Jewish heritage, let them teach about how to defend the country. Let them teach how to be a moral army. Let them teach about how to defend the country. Let them teach how to be a moral army. Let them teach military ethics. Let them teach things that normal armies teach.
Speaker 1: 40:57
You know, israel loves to portray itself as these a bunch of secular, western European kind of people that just want to, these happy-go-lucky people that just love life and all they want is to sip their coffee in Tel Aviv cafes and they're beset by all their enemies, everybody who they find themselves in opposition to. The other people are a bunch of religious fanatics. The Palestinians it's not a political thing, it has nothing to do with land. Rather, they're a bunch of fanatical Islamists that wanted to conquer the world for Islam. You know, I tell people, I used to tell people that Yasser Arafat was secular. He's not even real. People used to tell me about this, about Arafat. He wants to conquer the world for Islam. I said you know, Arafat is secular. Doesn't mean I'm a fan of his, not at all, but he was secular. His wife was Christian. He used to go with her to church. Sometimes he had nothing to do with Islam.
Speaker 1: 41:56
And the PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was the second largest of the groups in the PLO after the Fatah, was founded by a guy of Christian background. And the DFLP, the Democratic oh, by the way, the PFLP was also a Marxist organization. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was founded by a Catholic. These guys were all involved with various bombings, murders and hijackings. In 1976, the PFLP hijacked Air France planes that departed from Tel Aviv, the ones that landed in Entebbe. In Uganda, the DFLP carried out the 1974 massacre in Maalot that killed 25 schoolchildren and teachers.
Speaker 1: 42:45
This has nothing to do with Islam, and I tell this to people that don't believe me, didn't one of Israel's politicians I think it was, who was Sipi Khotovelli? Recently, he said that there are no churches in Gaza. They're just about. All we want is to be nice, happy-go-lucky Israelis who win Eurovision song contests and hang around in Tel Aviv. We love life and we're beset by these crazy religious people. All we want to do is be secular. And these religious fanatics over there, in the West, by Gaza, and in the East, in Jerusalem, these Haredim, all we want is for them to do normal things, to come serve in our army, and their religious fanaticism makes them lazy or refusing to serve their country. The truth is completely different.
Speaker 1: 43:39
Israel is run by an ideology called Zionism. Zionism is the most fanatical religion. It's a godless religion, but it's a religion, and it's very intolerant of other religions, in particular Judaism, very intolerant of Judaism. In fact, it believes, it insists and in the army, it will try to make you be convinced that Judaism is fake. Yes, they have religious Jews in the army and they even have religious units. But that religion is not the same as my religion.
Speaker 1: 44:17
There's overlap. There's overlap between Judaism and Christianity. We both have the Ten Commandments. There's overlap between Judaism and Islam. We both have a God. That's the first cause and necessary existence. We both have a God. That's the first cause and necessary existence. And there's overlap between Judaism and the Zionist version of Judaism, the Orthodox version of Zionism, and that's Shabbos and we keep Shabbos and we eat kosher and various things like that. But the idea that the Jews are a nationality, the idea that people should die and kill for land for some kind of country, that Israel is a protection in case of other holocausts, the concept of Jewish nationalism, that the Jews are a nationality, we consider that idol worship and you could be either a complete idol worshiper without putting on tefillin and keeping Shabbos, or you could be like the settlers that keep Shabbos, put on tefillin, or you could be like the settlers that keep Shabbos put on.
Speaker 1: 45:29
Aren't there so many Orthodox Jewish Zionists? And they don't understand, coming to me and asking me. Pointing out to me the Orthodox Jewish Zionists is like going to the Pope or the Catholic Church and pointing out to them that there are religious Christian Zionists. If you go to the Pope and tell him that, the Pope will say I have nothing to do with those guys, I'm Catholic. Those guys are Protestants, they're evangelicals. It's like a different religion. I have nothing to do with them. But what do you mean, pope? They are both Christians. You both believe in Jesus. Yeah, if somebody doesn't understand the difference between a Catholic and a Protestant, he's going to ask that question. But if you know the difference, you know that that's not a question, and I'm here to tell you that the difference between Catholicism and the evangelicals is nothing compared to the difference between Zionist Orthodox Jews and non-Zionist Orthodox Jews.
Speaker 1: 46:26
The Wall Street Journal had a couple of articles about the Haredim and their refusal to go to the army, and the press was full of reports about the protests. And if you look at the signs that were being waived at these protests, you'll see signs that say stuff like the Israeli army is not here to protect Jews, it's here to protect Zionism, we're not going to go to the army for Zionism, or we'd rather die as Jews than live as Zionists, etc. Many of these signs described a refusal to be Zionists. There are many reasons not to want to join the Israeli army Many, but from the get-go, the Israeli army is a Zionist indoctrination camp and we refuse to be Zionists. It's that simple. Now, the Wall Street Journal and much of the press got this not exactly right. I'm quoting you now from the Wall Street Journal the protesters were all male, ranging from toddlers to the elderly. A few women stood on the edge of the crowd. Two young boys walked along clutching a dozen banners on wooden sticks, before tossing the pile onto the ground.
Speaker 1: 47:42
One read, quote Israel's army is a Zionist brainwashing cult. End quote referring to secular Jewish culture. Now, no, it's not referring to secular Jewish culture. Now, no, it's not referring to secular Jewish culture. If they want to know what that sign meant, why don't they ask the person that made the sign, who designed it? They didn't ask. How do I know? They didn't ask Because I was the person that wrote that sign. I wrote it for them, I made that text and it doesn't mean secular Jewish culture. It means Zionist Jewish culture, zionist Jewish ideology. The Zionist Jewish version of what being Jewish is. The Zionist version of negation of the ideology of Orthodox Jews. The Zionist version of Jewish identity, the church of Zionism, the Zionist derision of regular Orthodox Judaism and the Israeli army is a Zionist brainwashing cult. A brainwashing cult for the religion of Zionism, not secular Jewish culture. What's secular Jewish culture? I'm not sure about Bagels and lox or something like that.
Speaker 1: 48:56
That's not the problem with the army. The problem with the army is that it is very, not secular, godless, but it's not secular, it's not Jewish and it's not culture. It's a godless civic religion that masquerades as Judaism. And it's not culture, it's doctrine. What is Judaism? War and army in a Jewish perspective? The identity of the Jewish people? Is Judaism a religion, way of life or constitution? Why can't they talk about Israel, the identity of the Israeli people? What is Israel about? What is patriotism to the country of Israel? Now don't get me wrong. According to Judaism, israel is not allowed to exist. Jews are not allowed to have sovereignty. I don't want to give anybody the misimpression, but as far as their rights are concerned, even from a secular perspective, a non-religious perspective, they forfeit any right for anybody to force anybody to go into their army, to demand anybody serving their army, because they made their army into the army of the Jews, with a religious indoctrination camp for Zionism.
Speaker 1: 50:06
Shimon Peres once said that the definition of a jew should not depend on having a jewish parent or grandparent. Rather, a jew is someone who raises his children in Israel, sends them to the army and sometimes even loses them in battle. End. Quote from shimon peres israel and its state ideology, zionism, is an interpretation of Judaism. Oh, and that's not even an honest thing that Shimon Peres said. Because the Druze do send their children to the army, raise them in Israel, and they are counted amongst the strongest patriots of Israel and strongest and most committed Zionists in the entire country. But Israel is still not their country. So if Shimon Peres' definition of a Jew would be correct, then the Druze would all be Jews. Now we're not done.
Speaker 1: 51:02
There are not two competing religions over here the Haredim, the Orthodox Jews and the Zionists but rather three that are in competition with each other. There's the Haredim, there's the secular Jews of the army, such as Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres and the like, and there's a third, the Orthodox Zionist settler types. They don't appreciate the Zionist interpretation of the Bible either. In fact, some of them in that article I read about the Bible courses that they give in the army walked out because they were offended. But these religious Zionist Orthodox army men don't make things better for the Haredim in the army. They make it worse. These people have a different religion, the Zionist Orthodox religion, in which Israel's wars also are not there merely to protect a country.
Speaker 1: 52:05
In a famous letter in 2014 by the previous Gaza war, colonel Ofer Winter wrote a letter of encouragement to his soldiers, and I quote from this letter History has chosen us to be the sharp edge of the spear, fighting the terrorist enemy that dares to curse, blaspheme and scorn the God of Israel's battles Not the battles of the IDF or the people of Israel or even the Jewish people. The wars the IDF fights are the battles of God, and because they're not the battles of humans but of God, the rhetoric of Israel's enemies is described as quite daring to curse and blaspheme. Winter later reiterates this idea when he prays to God for success against quote the enemy that abuses God's name. End, quote. Israel's wars are transformed by these Zionists, the religious Zionists, from mere acts of defenders into God's battles against blasphemers and those who abuse God's name. Obviously, as a religious man, I'm telling you that there's nothing wrong with anybody going into war to ask for God's help, but there's a big difference between asking Hashem's help for your own safety versus claiming that you are fighting a religious war God's battle against blasphemers. This is typical of the attitude of the national religious to the IDF, the religious Zionists To the IDF. Rabbi Chaim Druksman's statement quotes that our soldiers are fighting God's war. Quotes are commonplace and almost axiomatic amongst them. These national religious rabbis routinely preach that they're engaged in religious wars. Another example in the previous, the 2009 Gaza War, the rabbis in the IDF told the troops that the operation was quite a religious war against non-Jews. An army commander said their message was very clear: we are the Jewish people. We came to this land by a miracle. God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land. End quote.
Speaker 1: 54:20
Classic religious nationalist ideology. The ideology of these settler guys has always turned the political into the religious, taking the secular religious delusion about Jewish identity one step even further from reality. The reality is that Israel's army fights Israel's wars. Come the secular Zionists and they claim that Israel's fighting the wars of the Jewish people, not of Israel. Then come the religious Zionists who claim that Israel's wars are not only wars on behalf of the Jewish people, not only wars on behalf of Israel, but also on behalf of God, not only against Israel's enemies and not only against the Jews' enemies, but against the blasphemers, against the God. This indoctrination serves to portray Israel's army as actually representing Judaism and, in the case of the religious Zionists, hashem as well. It also creates, in the mind of the soldiers, a continuum between the ancient armies of the biblical Israel and the army of the state of Israel today.
Speaker 1: 55:21
The idea of the Israeli army being endowed with mystical abilities and an aura of biblical holiness wasn't always present in the Zionist mind. It really took off in 1956 during the Sinai campaign. There, the Zionists started using words like a soldier being messianic, a redeemer. In an article I have in front of me now, it's called War and Religiosity the Sinai Campaign in Public Thought. In a book called Israel the First Decade of Independence, a Yonah Hadari Ramaj writes as follows and as of 1956, the Israeli soldiers were quote considered an elite or privileged group, not only because they won the war, but also due to what was termed a modern version of the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Speaker 1: 56:22
Embraced by declared atheists or non-observant Jews, religiosity legitimizes a divinely inspired authority which relies solely on the Old Testament sources. This religiosity functioned outside traditional Judaism. It employed such terms as miracle blood, holiness, sanctification rites, prayers, messianism, redemption, sacrifice, liberated territories and homeland territories Perceived as a miraculous supernatural phenomenon. Even before it ended, public thought of the Sinai campaign was suffused with religiosity oriented hyperbole with regard to soldiers, the army and desert landscapes. Public thought during the Sinai campaign portrayed a figure of a soldier who was ordained. A knight was not merely made, he was ordained. The figure of the soldier carrying a messianic vision that emerges is strikingly similar to that of the Templar knight. This image of the IDF soldier who's wrapped in his uniform as in a talus recurs. Idf soldier who's wrapped in his uniform as in a talus recurs. End. Quote the Templar Knight. He's talking about the Christian order of the Templars founded by Saint Bernard. The Zionists took the Templar Knight, the image of the Templar Knight, and transferred it to the IDF soldier, chief Rabbi. Now those are the secular Zionists.
Speaker 1: 57:52
Chief Rabbi Shlomo Gorin, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, said about the Sinai War quote the revelation of Sinai, that's when God gave the Torah to Moses will go down as a symbol and an example of the combination of the Bible and the sword, the canon and the Torah, the machine gun and the spirit of Judaism that depend on one another. So I ask now can anybody blame does anybody out there really blame the Haredim for refusing to be subjected to this insane asylum? Let's fast forward. Now I'm going back to the article called the Chain of Hebrew Soldiers, quote from the military rabbinate's traditional role of simply supporting the standards of religious observance maintained by troops from religious backgrounds.
Speaker 1: 58:55
The subsequent chief rabbi, brigadier General Avi Ronsky, went further in demarcating a philosophical foundation for the rabbinate's new interest in combat motivation and individual empowerment. For Rabbi Ronsky, the primary purpose of the military rabbinate was to quote aid the commander in strengthening the combat spirit from the sources of Torah and rabbinic sages end quote. In this way, the military rabbinate participates in cultivating a sense of historical meaning and moral purpose within the commanding levels of the IDF's combat unit, as Rabbi Ronsky wrote in the rabbinate's monthly newsletter. Quote is thousands of years old and that placed before him a distinct Jewish mission and vision. That kind of soldier can call forth immense inner strength before going out to combat in defense of his nation and his land End quote.
Speaker 1: 1:00:01
So first, I'm sorry, but Charei Dimnobari is obligated to fight religious wars If Israel wants people to join their army. Just stop with this Jewishness. Stop with religion, stop with the Bible. Stop foisting your religion or your version of Judaism down the throats of your recruits. Just stop it. Become a normal country, become a normal army. And guess what I got to tell you if they would, they wouldn't even want the Haredim, because that's really what they're afraid of. That's the second thing we have to know. Besides that, Israel's army is really a religious indoctrination camp for either the religious Zionist religion or the secular Zionist religion. We have to understand the motivation, the reason why they really want the Haredim in the army, the reason why they really want the Haredim in the army.
Speaker 1: 1:00:52
Back in 2010, when they also tried to pass a law to draft the Haredim, a Knesset member, Yoel Hassan from the Kadima party, said, " I brought up this issue to Prime Minister Netanyahu 53% of first graders in Israel are not receiving a Zionist education. I told him that this is a danger that threatens our very existence, more dangerous than the threat of a nuclear capable Iran. Listen, this country knows that nothing here is guaranteed. We also know the eventual price we'll pay for such deviations. We should not have to come to that. Let's face this problem, this schism. Let's face that. Let's face this problem, this schism. Let's face the direction things are going and let's deal with it. End quote. The existential threat, worse than the threat of a nuclear capable Iran, is that 53% of first graders in Israel are not receiving a Zionist education. Here we go again. It has nothing to do with security. It has to do with Zionism. Let's not frame this issue as Haredim that don't want to go to the army. Let's frame the issue as anti-Zionists that refuse to go to the army. You saw the signs. You can look them up in all the articles, in all the media. The signs say we refuse to be Zionists. We refuse to serve in an army that serves Zionism. We refuse to serve the Zionist gods. We'd rather die as Jews than live as Zionists. The issue over here is they want the anti-Zionists.
Speaker 1: 1:02:28
The H president, then-president Reuven Rivlin, spoke at the Herzliya conference and he said the face of Israeli society is changing. It's not a subtle or trivial change. The new Israeli order is not a doomsday prediction. It's a reality. Israeli society was built upon a clear and established majority, a great majority of political Zionists. Three minorities, the Mizrahi sector that's what they call Svardim. The Arabs and the Haredim took their places alongside that majority. Now the reality has entirely changed.
Speaker 1: 1:03:05
We must examine the social and relative ramifications of this new Israeli order. Do we all share a common political language? Do we have a common value system that can unite all of the different groups in our Jewish and democratic state of Israel? In the past, the IDF served as the central vehicle in forging the Israeli character In the army. Israeli society met itself, developed itself, built its social and ethical moors. The new Israeli order requires us to change our way of thinking, to explore a new concept, that of a partnership among the different sectors in Israeli society. This partnership, of necessity, must be built upon several foundations. The most challenging one is the creation of a united Israeli society. And quote there we have it again. We're talking about the lack of Zionism in such a large section of the Israeli community. Do we all share a common political language? Drafting people into the IDF, dragging the Haredim into the IDF, is not to make them into soldiers, it's to make them into Zionists. To share, quote, a common political language, a common value system that can unite all the different groups in our Jewish and democratic state of Israel. That's really what they want with the. That's Israel's president's talking.
Speaker 1: 1:04:27
The beginning of these laws, designed to require drafting of the anti-Zionist Jews into the army, was a Justiz Tal Justiz Tal. In fact, the original law starting this process was called Choyk Tal, the Tal Law, Justiz Tal gave an interview for the media on June 30th in the year 2000, a few weeks before his commission's recommendations were voted into law on July 23rd. He explained his commission's motives. This is quote from the justice that made the law. The yeshiva students must be given an opportunity at a young enough age to leave the yeshiva and integrate into society. Initially, we do not expect a substantial result, but we mustn't forget that this is a long-term social experiment to bring populations together. When people begin to work together, their ways of thinking become alike. End quote. The goal is to bring them together, so their ways of thinking should become alike. The idea is to change the Haredim's way of thinking.
Speaker 1: 1:05:40
Mikhail Ben-Ari is a former Knesset member of the Yichud Ha'lu'umi party. On June 11th 2018, ben-ari wrote as follows. I've been saying this the whole time the issue of the Haredi draft is all about forcing cultural change on them, and this is no secret. It's about making the Haredim abandon their religion in the melting pot. I heard this with my own ears at the meetings of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Nobody attempted to conceal that this was the objective. On July 2, 2018, he restated this point. Truth be told, the struggle of the Haredim against the draft isn't because of Torah study. Not all of them are learning and it's not because they're draft dodgers either. Haredim volunteer for all kinds of charity endeavors and social service organizations. Dot dot dot For those who want them drafted. The goal is to re-educate them in the Israeli melting pot. End quote.
Speaker 1: 1:06:46
Despite Israel's portrayal of itself as some happy-go-lucky secular Western country that's beset by religious fanatics from all directions. Just as the Soviet Union, for example, was run by an ideology called communism, Israel's run by an ideology called Zionism. And this Zionism is far from a regular, normal Western liberal ideology. Rather, it's a full-fledged religion in which the archenemy is not Satan, it's not the forces of evil. The archenemy of Zionism is the traditional religion of Judaism, and Israel's army, the IDF, is designed to make sure that, in this battle that Zionism waged against the Jewish religion, Zionism will emerge the victor. The Zionist values will emerge victorious over the Jewish ones, the Zionist theology will emerge victorious over the Jewish theology and the Zionist will overcome the Jewish one. Yet the Jewish people have survived for thousands of years. We survived the Romans, we survived the Greeks, we survived so many people that wanted to eliminate our religion. We will survive the Zionists as well.
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